Sixth class pupils taught in school gym - Tipperary schools crisis laid bare in Dáil

Children in north Tipperary are being taught in a school gym due to a lack of classrooms, the Dáil has heard, after Alan Kelly raised the issue during a debate on the National Development Plan.

Mr Kelly said Nenagh Community National School “does not have a classroom for sixth class and those students are going to have to use the gym”.

He said “there was nowhere for the sixth class to be educated last year, bar a gym”, despite the school having approval for additional classrooms and having purchased a neighbouring GP surgery to expand.

The school is the only large-scale non-denominational primary school in Nenagh, and its exclusion from the latest round of funding was raised as part of a wider concern about investment in north Tipperary.

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Mr Kelly said he was “very disappointed, as were the people of north Tipperary, that in the recent capital announcement under the national development plan of 105 schools, only one in the area got funding”.

St Anne’s School in Roscrea was included for an extension, which he said was “very welcome as it is a brilliant school”.

However, he said four other schools had been in ongoing contact with the Department of Education and had received detailed correspondence which “to my eyes said they would be included”. All are under the Tipperary Education and Training Board.

At Coláiste Phobal Ros Cré, Mr Kelly said the school “has needed a new school building for many years” and “has been in the capital plan for over a decade”.

“I believe it has been in the capital plan for over a decade. It received confirmation it was getting a new school in 2021,” he said, adding that the school had gone for planning for “a new replacement 800-pupil school with a four-class SEN base”.

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In Coláiste Mhuire Co-Ed, he said “the school building is leaking in many different locations”.

“The idea that you can stick some modular units on this site is a joke; with the modular units at the moment, you could stick your hands through them,” he said.

At Newport College, he said the project had already received planning approval for a development including classrooms, specialist rooms and SEN units.

“Newport is one of the fastest-growing towns in the mid-west,” he said, adding that the area “has taken an awful lot of change in the past 30 years”.

Mr Kelly also questioned the balance of funding nationally.

“To say the volume of school projects announced in the likes of Galway when compared with north Tipperary looks skew-ways would be an understatement,” he said.

He asked why the four schools were not included in the capital plan and whether there is any plan to include them “in the coming weeks and months”.

The issue was raised as part of a wider Dáil debate on school infrastructure and capacity, with pressure on places and delays in projects continuing to be highlighted.